The CWSAP FCRLRC – Huh?

At Nebraska Appleseed, we have a tendency to develop long, drawn-out, flowery titles for our work that don’t lend themselves very well to catchy acronyms. Most Appleseeders credit our founding director, Milo Mumgaard, for this tradition, though it has out-lived even Milo’s tenure.

For example, the “Child Welfare System Accountability Program” or the “CWSAP” is Appleseed-speak for our work around foster care issues. Within the CWSAP, we have a project that provides resources to child welfare attorneys, which we call the “Foster Care Reform Legal Resource Center” or the “FCRLRC.”

Are you still with me? If so, I’d like to use today’s blog post to tell you a little bit about the CWSAP FCRLRC:

The FCRLRC provides assistance to child welfare attorneys across the state to help them develop more positive precedents in juvenile law and to involve them in systemic reform. The idea of the FCRLRC is that these attorneys, who are on the â€œfront linesâ€ for children and families, are in the best position to identify needed reforms and to help make them happen. To this end, the FCRLRC provides attorneys with everything from research on systemic issues to filing amicus briefs and co-counseling on potentially precedent setting cases. The FCRLRC also maintains a Nebraska-specific child welfare listserv for attorneys and releases a monthly electronic newsletter to update attorneys on various policy issues as well as case law and legislative developments.

Recently, the FCRLRC expanded our resources to include a Juvenile Document Bank. The Juvenile Document Bank is a section of our website that provides attorneys with sample legal documents (pleadings, motions, etc.) they can use in their day-to-day practices, with a special focus on addressing chronic challenges in the child welfare system.

Last month, the CWSAP was invited to make a presentation on the FCRLRC model at the American Bar Association (ABA) Conference on Children and the Law in Washington, DC as part of a panel on innovations in lawyer engagement in systemic reform.

Even though it has an unpronounceable acronym, the CWSAP FCRLRC is working hard to make a difference in child welfare law and practice across the state. Hopefully, we are making Milo proud!